Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-28
A PANHANDLE PILGRIM.
The Late state Superintendent OF Educa-
ton on the Great Northwest.

Fhe Late state Superintendent OF Educa
ton on the Great Northwest.
Yesterday afternoon q representative
of this paper had q pleasant interview
with Hon. B. NJ. Baker, the late popular
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The gentleman had been "rough1ng it"
in the Panhandle for couple
of months, and though he did not
wear the spring plug hat and sleek clothes
that once marked him as the neatest
dressed of all the state officials about the
Capital city, his bronzed cheeks told IF
the healthy life on the plains, where cos
tunes are worn for comfort and not for
style. OF eli the admirers and believers
in the great future of the Panhandle re-
gi0n. Mr.. Baker is one of the most
ardent and sanguine. He had
traversed the country from DOnley north
to Wheeler, thence west to Oldham aud
back through Hartley, Moore, Hntchin-
son and R)berts-in fact, all of it except
g tier bordering on No Mans Land. He
says it is an empire in extent, and of the
grsndest possibilities. When all of its
resources are made known to the outside
world, there will, the gentleman thinks,
be an unprecedented rush of immigration
probably greater than ever before seen
in Texas.
WHAT STRUCK HIM MOST.
"What surprised me most" said the
honorable gentleman, twas the vast
amount of fertile lands fit for cultivation.
The great body of the Panhandle will
produce surprisingly large crops of wheat,
oats, barley, rye and all sorts of small
grain. Sucn crops are always sure there,
for the country isn't subject to the
serious drouths that sometimes visit
other parts of the state. Tine people don't
speak of the drouth up there, because
they didn't have any. Ga the contrary,
they have regular and copi0us rainfall.
Yes, it is going to be the banner agriCul-
turaI section, st least for the cereals.
The lands are rich sandy loan, easily
worked, and cheaper than anywhere on
earth. For that reason scores of
hardy and self-sustaining emil
grants are now to be seen
f3ckiDg ia great many from
Kansas and some from the south a long
line Of prairie schooners is often seen
bearing these settlers and their families
who are coming to locate. You can say
that the
OMAN WITH THE HOE"
is moving into the Panhandle, the most
welcome invader q country ever had
The new lesd law allows him TO take up
one section of watered or four of dry
land, to pay for on long time, and
he is Selling his golden opportunity The
chief reason that the country has been a
sort of terra incognita so long is its lack
Of railroad advantages. This will soon
be thing of the past. The Fort Worth
and Denver and the Southern Kansas are
building into the Panhandle with all pos
sible rapidity. The former is graded to
within four miles Of Clarendon, and
the other across the Canadian
river into Hemphill. county, and are to
intersect in Carson county, though the
lines are not yet definitely located.
In Hemphill, where the river above
named is crossed by the Southern Kansas,
is Canadian City, the coming great town
of the Panhandle. a meeting of all the |
prominent men of the county was held |
there last Monday and declared in favor |
of making it the county seat. |
Petitions for the organization of the |
county were also started. 1t is a beauti- |
full site for town, and surrounded Dy g |
rich and splendidly watered country. |
The advent Of these roads is the turning |
epoch in the history of the Panhandle. |
The eyes OF countless thousands of heme |
seekers are now turned in tina. |
direction. It is destined TO become |
the greatest stock-farming section of |
the United States, where the raising |
of grain and small herds of fine cattle |
Will 60 hand in hand together, and where |